Media in Minutes
Media in Minutes podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. With host Angela Tuell, this podcast is published every other week. Connect with us on Facebook @CommunicationsRedefined; Twitter @CommRedefined and Instagram @CommRedefined. To learn more, visit www.communicationsredefined.com. #PR, #Public Relations, #Media, #Journalists, #Interviews, #Travel, #Marketing, #Communications
Media in Minutes
The Year That Changed Everything: Heather Greenwood Davis' Remarkable Travel Writing Journey
What happens when a successful lawyer decides to follow her passion for storytelling and takes her family on a year-long journey around the world? Heather Greenwood Davis shares this remarkable story of transformation, revealing how visiting 29 countries across six continents with her husband and young sons forever changed their perspective on what matters in life.
As the first Black woman to have travel columns in both of Canada's national newspapers, Heather brings a refreshing authenticity to travel journalism. She discusses her unconventional career path from journalism school to law practice to award-winning travel writer, explaining how becoming a mother prompted her to reassess her professional direction and ultimately return to her first love – storytelling.
The heart of our conversation explores how Heather approaches travel narratives differently. Rather than deciding on stories before arrival, she allows destinations to reveal themselves organically, focusing on human connections that transcend cultural differences. Whether giving her child a timeout on a mountain in Peru or discovering Portugal before it became trendy, her experiences highlight universal truths about family, connection and personal growth.
We also delve into the practical aspects of travel journalism – from the challenges of group press trips to the current political climate affecting cross-border reporting. Heather provides candid insights about working with PR professionals, maintaining one's authentic voice and finding meaning through global exploration. Despite her public persona across print, television and digital platforms, she reveals she's actually an introvert who carefully balances engagement with necessary personal recharging time.
Connect with Heather on Instagram @byheatherGD or through her website www.heathergreenwooddavis.com to follow her continuing adventures in global storytelling that bridge cultures and celebrate our shared humanity.
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Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host, Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world From our studio here at Communications Redefined. This is Media in Minutes. On today's episode, we are talking with Heather Greenwood Davis.
Angela Tuell:Heather is a trailblazer. She is the first Black woman to have a travel column in both of Canada's national newspapers, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. For more than 20 years, she's told travel stories that encourage parents to raise global citizens without sacrificing their own travel dreams, and has led by example. Her features appear in National Geographic, where she has been a contributing editor, contributing writer and columnist, afar Travel and Leisure, condé Nast Traveler. Heather has appeared on and hosted travel segments on television shows across North America, including CTV's, the Social, chch Morning Live, good Morning America and CBS Sunday Morning. Among her many accolades, national Geographic's 2012 Travelers of the Year Honor, awarded to her family after their year-long non-stop family trip around the world, remains her most treasured. Heather lives in Toronto, canada, with her husband and has two sons. Hello, heather.
Angela Tuell:Hi Thank you so much for joining us today. I have to say I'm personally super excited to talk with you. Can we start from the year-long nonstop family trip around the world?
Heather Greenwood Davis:For those who aren't familiar.
Angela Tuell:Please tell us more.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Happily. Happily, it's one of the best things I've done in my life, so I could talk about it ad nauseum. In 2011 through 2012, it was June to June my husband and I took our kids, ethan and Cameron, who were six and eight at the time, out of school for a year and we traveled the world. We hit 29 countries on six continents, and the goal of it wasn't necessarily like to see as much as we could see, but to really sort of expand their understanding of the world really and to make sure they understood that the world was bigger than their schoolyard. I don't know, you know, when we're kids, we all think you know the kid at school who doesn't like us, or the teacher who isn't giving us the mark we want, like, this is the whole world right? It has such an impact on lives and we wanted to take them out of that and sort of broaden their idea of what matters, and it worked.
Heather Greenwood Davis:So for me I was a travel writer at the time it was a great opportunity for me to go further with young kids. Usually I had to rush back from any trip or not stay too long, because I had young kids at home and now they'd be with me so we could go as far as we wanted. And my husband was on a prepaid sabbatical, so he works for the local health municipality here and he was able to sort of work ahead. So for four years before we left he worked extra time but banked the pay for that. So they didn't pay him for that until the year he took off work. So we had an income coming through and I was working as a travel writer through that year and, yeah, we got to see all these incredible places.
Angela Tuell:Wow, so it was four years in the planning.
Heather Greenwood Davis:It was yeah, it was actually a lot longer than four years in the planning or in the dreaming. Let's say but, but. And then it was four years where we knew it was going to happen, but always with an out. If we at any point during that time thought, you know, the kids needed something different or we needed the money he needed to work, then we could have postponed it or canceled it or got our money back earlier or whatever we needed. So, planning in earnest as we went, we left home with just tickets across Canada, into and out of South America, into China and out of China and everything else we did from the road.
Angela Tuell:Wow, that is really impressive. What were some of the best lessons you learned during the time, and is there anything you would have done differently?
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, lesson wise. You know, I knew that it was going to be good for my family. I just in my gut thought it was a good idea to do it, but I really I can't stress enough how much it impacted our relationships. We it really sort of cemented our knowledge of who we can depend on. That respect is at the cornerstone of how we treat each other. You know who matters most in our lives and we.
Heather Greenwood Davis:You know my kids are now 21. 21, nope, 20, yeah, 21, almost 21 and almost 23. And so I've seen these kids grow into adults and we still have that relationship. It's still a very close-knit family. So that was definitely a lesson. I think on the trip we learned that kids can handle a lot more than we think they can. I think on the trip we learned that kids can handle a lot more than we think they can. Yes, and the world is an excellent teacher because it's an opportunity to touch and feel and ask questions no-transcript. So having that space from the things that you've always known, I think is great for all of us.
Angela Tuell:Yes, how long did you stay places? Was it always different?
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, it was always different. I mean, the longest time we spent in a country, we spent six weeks in India, and that you know, if you've been to India or know of India, it's a drop in the bucket for what you could do in exploring India. So I never say that I've. Like you know, I'm not one of those people who country counts or who says like I've done India, we did a great deal of it, we visited a great deal of it, but there's, you know there's. There's no way I've I've checked India off any list.
Angela Tuell:Sure, were there some destinations that surprised you or that you'd recommend you know ahead of others. To to other people.
Heather Greenwood Davis:You know I fell in love with Portugal on this trip. So and this was like 2011, no 2012. So it was before, sort of like. Right now, portugal is hot, everybody, you know, in love with it and moving there, and it was long before that started. It was very much a less visited country and off everyone's radar and it was sort of this happy accident that led us there.
Heather Greenwood Davis:We weren't supposed to go there, we were supposed to go to Greece, and this whole trip was about following the sun and it was going to be too cold in Greece at the time we were going, so we just tried to find, you know what's the southernmost place we can get to quickly, where we have a shot at some sunshine and warmth this coming from, you know, north of the border and it was Portugal and I absolutely we were supposed to spend two days just as sort of a turnaround and figure out our next stop, and we ended up there for two weeks. I've gone back many, many times since and just absolutely love it, and I think that experience with Portugal as a surprise has sort of framed how I approach travel as a whole, which is basically that you know, every place has the possibility of surprising you, and I try not to rule things out.
Angela Tuell:That's great. That's some good advice, definitely so let's take a step back to talk about you, your background. How did you get into travel writing? Was your training in journalism?
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, so I did a journalism degree at Carleton University in Ottawa. So I did a journalism degree at Carleton University in Ottawa. I, as a kid I wanted to be a journalist, like I always knew that I wanted to write and followed that through. I was the kid who, like I think I, started a newspaper in grade four. I know I started a newspaper in grade four. I, you know, worked at the high school paper.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I worked for the community paper and eventually went to university for it and then worked at the Toronto Star for a year and then once at the end of that year by you know a story that would take far too long to tell you now. But I ended up going to law school and spent the three years in law school barely going to class and very much acting as a stringer for the paper there, so reporting on things. This was in Windsor, ontario, just across from Detroit, and I spent most of my time sort of focusing on writing stories for the paper back in Toronto while I was there. And then I was probably two or three years into practicing law when I had my oldest, my first son, and once I had him that was sort of the first time. It was a big, busy law firm and that was probably the first time that I sort of looked around and said I'm in the wrong place.
Angela Tuell:So you even made it. I mean you were working as a lawyer. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it it.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I mean you were working as a lawyer, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's a bit of a treadmill right or a hamster wheel is really. You get on and you don't really look left or right until something forces you to stop. And for me that was a pregnancy and suddenly I realized I was in the wrong spot and I sort of began to find my way out. So by 2007, I was a full-time freelancer.
Angela Tuell:Wow, so you went from that straight and did you go and do travel writing right away.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, and I mean I'm sure you know this, but, like you know, yes, but also anything and everything, right?
Angela Tuell:You would take anything Right.
Heather Greenwood Davis:So I wrote all kinds of things. So I wrote a lot of things and a lot of my career has been this way, where I really do sort of mind my own life. And so I had been a lawyer and I was moving back into writing, so I wrote for legal publications, right, like it made sense to do that sort of thing.
Angela Tuell:Yeah, and now you write for the top travel outlets and are also a travel expert on TV. Can you tell us what your focus is currently? You know all the different places we can find you online. Print TV Sure.
Heather Greenwood Davis:So I like to share stories from the places I've visited. So that's key. I'm not typically someone who sits at home and writes about places. That's key. I'm not typically someone who sits at home and writes about places. I like to introduce people to people who are just like them, but the circumstances they're in might be slightly different. So I like when my stories are teaching people or opening people to the idea that, oh, I can relate to that person in that place, even though I always thought those people were different than me.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I like when my stories offer a perspective that maybe someone didn't have access to before. You know, is it whether it's, you know, a history that you weren't taught in school or a lesson that you know, you, you, you can relate to, but it's happening in a different place? I guess an example of that would be you know, I always talk about the fact that when we were on our trip around the world, I gave my kid a timeout on a mountain in Peru and people, you know, yeah, I'm in Peru, I'm in this gorgeous setting, I'm on at Ollantaytambo. I'm sure I messed that up and I had to basically use my body as a shield to allow people to make their way around the mountain while I was keeping this kid in timeout. But I still had to parent him then and there it was my youngest and he was sort of running along the edge Right.
Angela Tuell:You had to keep him safe alive.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Right, and so people were like, oh my gosh, you can give, you give timeouts. You're on this world trip and you're giving. I'm like, yeah, you still have to parent, and every parent can relate to that feeling, but probably every parent hasn't done it on a mountain right. So it's just taking things that people are familiar with and trying to weave narratives that help them remember that I'm just like them. I'm someone who's probably grown up in similar circumstances to them and I'm out in the world and meeting people and enjoying it and learning new things all the time, and so so can they.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I'll add that on TV I do a lot of that, but I also do a lot of hotel coverage and I do a lot of. I'm on two main shows. One's called the Social on CTV, which is kind of like the Canadian version of the View that's how I describe it and I do travel for them and the other one is a morning show here in Toronto, chch Morning Live. That I do regularly, but then I also do, you know, sometimes I'm doing sharing on SMTs, or I'm doing branded content in places, or people are asking for my expertise on other newsy topics. So it really varies.
Angela Tuell:Yes, no. No day is the same. I loved is in preparing for our interview. I saw something you said that I love. You said that you can listen to the stories people need to share and tell the stories that people need to hear, and that's exactly what you were just saying. Can you give us some examples of some of your favorite stories you've written?
Heather Greenwood Davis:Oh, wow.
Angela Tuell:Well, that's a tough one.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I know, I, I, there's one coming out. You know how it is. I'm sure that, like, these things take occupy space in my brain and I love them as I'm putting together and I lovingly send them out into the world and then I have to move to the next one, um, the ones that live in my brain, um are often ones that, uh, have recently come through. So I know there's a story coming out shortly about an experience I had in Churchill, manitoba, where I basically befriended a little boy who was on this trip with us, this family travel trip. Boy who was on this trip with us, this family travel trip, not my child, another child, and you know, he, you know, clearly loved me. We got on great, but he just could never remember my name.
Heather Greenwood Davis:How old was this child oh, I think he was four or five, okay, you know, but like it would reach for my hands and every, at every moment and was like it's just a great experience, but it was. So you know, the story sort of talks about Churchill, manitoba, which is, you know, home to the polar bears and has some some great cultural and indigenous offerings out there as well, but sort of through the lens of this experience with this stranger who became a good buddy of mine, and how we navigate that experience separately and together. So you know, it's sort of that.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I feel like people need to understand that you can, I need to see that you're having these kinds of connections in the world, you know, and that they're like I would have never met this kid in any others, or his family, which who are wonderful in any other circumstance. So I don't know if that answers the question, but those are the kinds of stories that that stick with me. You know, not every person I meet ends up in a story of their own, but I don't think there's anyone I've met who hasn't impacted the way I tell a story, because you just can't interact with people in their homes and not feel some responsibility to look at a place like from their lens, or at least a lens other than your own, and so I think that the stories I do tell are always indirectly impacted by those experiences, even if it's not that direct an impact.
Angela Tuell:Yeah, that's what makes them so wonderful to read. Where will that story be?
Heather Greenwood Davis:That one's coming in Zoomer magazine, so that's a Canadian magazine sort of aimed at almost like an AARP type of audience.
Angela Tuell:Oh, okay, okay, great. So what are you most proud of professionally in your career so far? I know you've won lots of awards.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Oh yeah, it's funny, I don't even think of the awards first when you ask that question. That might be telling, but awards wise, there's two that stand out. One is you know, when we came back from that year around the world, we were named National Geographic Travelers. When we came back from that year around the world, we were named National Geographic Travelers Travelers of the Year in 2012. We were among a group that were named, but we were named as a family and that was really important to me that all four of us you know our team was was got that award. That was really big.
Heather Greenwood Davis:And in 2020, you know just as sort of the pandemic was rolling in 2020, you know just as sort of the pandemic was rolling in the Family Travel Association named me as a person of the year and having worked with that that organization from its, you know, conception really that was that was really important to me. But, honestly, the thing I'm most proud of professionally is my reputation, you know, and I'm proud of the fact that I think good things are often said about me when I'm not in the room. I think that's great and I'm also really proud of the fact that I think I've always had a good sense of what my voice is when I'm writing, and I don't think I've had to trade that to be more successful.
Angela Tuell:Yeah, you can't ask for anything better, right?
Heather Greenwood Davis:Right.
Angela Tuell:So how do you choose your next story?
Heather Greenwood Davis:These days they choose me. Okay, at least the settings, sort of. You know where I'm going to tell. That story often chooses me. You know, when I'm out. Once I'm out in a destination, I'll often know in my gut when I found the story. Somebody says something, or I have some experience, or something goes off the rails like those are often the best ones. But I try not to decide before I go somewhere exactly what the story will be. I might know, you know, some possibilities for stories that could come out of that. You know some straightforward oh, this would be good in a roundup. Or I'm going to this hotel and it's brand new and I'm writing about a new hotel, so it's going to have its own feature. But in terms of, I really like when I arrive in a place and the place just sort of settles into me and I get a sense of, oh, you know, somebody says something and it's like oh, I know, this is, this, is the story that needs to be told from here.
Angela Tuell:Yeah, so then how do you choose your next destination?
Heather Greenwood Davis:They choose me. It's, it's, it's um, how do I choose them? Honestly, at this stage of the game, often it's somewhere I haven't been, unless there's a really good reason to return to a place, and often it is. You know, if I'm in conversation, for example, with the publicist and they're saying to me they're able to provide me with a reason that's new, unique, novel, that's always helpful in deciding where to go. But, yeah, often it's places you know, like recently, most recently, I was in Tobago, right Trinidad and Tobago. Tobago has just been one of those places that I don't hear a lot about and that is always intriguing to me if I'm like well, how come nobody's talking about this place? And you know how come? It's only people who are from there that are telling me how great it is, let me go see. So those places always call to me. But, yeah, I'm always I'm interested in places that where people are. I'm always I'm interested in places that where people are. So everywhere.
Angela Tuell:Great answer how often are you traveling these days?
Heather Greenwood Davis:Wow, last year I was really not. So last year I was probably going two and a half to three weeks a month. It was my kids, I was an empty nester and sort of jumped in with both feet. I regretted that by January of this year and so I've slowed down quite a bit. So I would say, well, this year I've taken five trips and probably been away from home maybe four and a half weeks total, and I'm home for the rest of this month and much of next month. So I'd probably take a trip a month, you know, and maybe there's a month off somewhere in there, yeah, next month. So I probably take a trip a month, you know, and maybe there's a month off somewhere in there.
Angela Tuell:Yeah, okay. So it's good to be more selective for our own well-being, right.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, burnout and career.
Angela Tuell:Right, yeah, do you have preferences on hosted trips or advice for those of us wanting to bring you to a destination? Besides the new? I love that advice on. You know something's new or different, but any other advice?
Heather Greenwood Davis:Oh, so much advice. I don't do a ton of press trips and the reason I don't do like group press trips, the reason I don't do that, I'm sure I've been well documented, Like you know. Oftentimes it requires you to move en masse as a group and you know what I need might not be what someone else's need, or we're going to move off of a story before I sort of get what I need. Might not be what someone else's need, or we're gonna move off of a story before I sort of get what I need. And so I find the group press trips tend to only be good for roundup types of stories or really broad strokes, overreaching story, right Like a story just about this place exists and there are 6 million things to do, Right. But the types of stories I write tend to be deeper, right, Narrative. Something has to happen, there has to be time for that to happen and a group press trip probably isn't the right way for that. So often I'm either doing, you know, partnering with or suggesting another writer that I can travel with someone I know we're not competing for outlets and who I know writes in a different way than I do and, as you know, we're not going to be competing for stories. Even if we tell the same story is going to be told in two very different ways. So either I'll suggest that or I'll go on my own if that's what the story dictates. Or I've often, you know a lot of the work. I'll go on my own if that's what the story dictates, or I've often, you know a lot of the work I've done.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Even outside of that year long trip around the world is around family travel, and for me, family travel has never been sort of defined.
Heather Greenwood Davis:As you know, two parents, two kids and Disney World Like nothing wrong with Disney World, but absolutely it's always been a mix. I've traveled with just my younger brother as adults. I've traveled with my mom. Recently we did a trip to Paris together and that's the stories that have come out of that are everything from, you know, accessibility travel so you're traveling with a senior and and learning about what their needs might be on a trip where you didn't think about that before to mother-daughter relationships, to what's it like for you know this immigrant woman, my mom, who immigrated from Jamaica many, many years ago and dreamed of Paris versus me, who's sort of grown up thinking of it as like totally available and accessible, so it allows for different types of storytelling that I think make the destination more relatable. So I would just say overall, I guess my advice is that be open to having conversations with the person you want on the trip to see what might actually work, Because if you admire the work that they put out, they want to make sure you're creating an environment where that's possible.
Angela Tuell:Absolutely.
Heather Greenwood Davis:And group press trips. For me don't often, don't often do that.
Angela Tuell:Yes, yes, absolutely. How often are you writing for American versus Canadian outlets? Is it kind of split or what would you say it is yeah.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I'd say like up to yeah, probably still. I probably now write about 80 percent for American publications. Ok, in part because the Canadian publications there aren't as many, right, and they aren't, quite frankly, they don't pay as well. Ok, and I don't think the American publications pay as well as they could.
Angela Tuell:I was going to say they don't pay that well either. Right.
Heather Greenwood Davis:But but Canadian publications definitely aren, definitely aren't even there. So you know, from a financial business point of view it makes more sense for me to write for American publications, but I do love the stuff we have here and so you know I started in newspapers, I still write for newspapers if I find stories that are particularly compelling for them. And I write for a bunch of Canadian magazines, depending on what the story is.
Angela Tuell:Okay, and then, of course, the Canadian TV that we talked about.
Heather Greenwood Davis:And then Canadian TV right.
Angela Tuell:Yeah. So aside from press trips, how can PR professionals best help you do your job? Or pet peeves, we could go there too.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, I think the way for them to help me do my job. Let's just say that I get a lot of emails, yeah, and I get it because I understand that the pressures are, you know, not necessarily coming internally from from a publicist's office, that they're coming from the client, right from the client. Right, somebody wants you to send me regular updates about their soft linens and the person who's moved into the general manager position, but honestly, I'm not reading those right, like it's's. I have to get through all many emails without a good purpose, right, and I, I, you know, I'm, I know, you know Sarah Greaves-Gabiton. She and I have, over the last little while, actually gone into some publicist offices and tried to speak to publicists about, you know, some of the things that we think, you know, the three portions of us the media, the publicist and the client we all are sort of trying to work together to, you know, do the same thing and yet often journalists and publicists and clients aren't talking about how to make that better. So I appreciate the question because and that's why I could go on forever about it but there are a lot of things that I think you just don't and I don't mean you, but just generally, people don't understand about the way writers work, and so they.
Heather Greenwood Davis:If I get into the habit of simply sliding across and deleting an email because I know that you know 99.9% of the time it's an email that's not going to be of use to me, then nobody wins right? Like, absolutely want to get to the stories and information that you have that can be useful to all of us, but it's often buried under emails that are of less use. So I think that would be the number one one and I think the way to combat that is because I also have a lot of leeway. Listen, I've been on the press trips where we all know we're going to visit the something. I won't even name a particular outlet that is only because there's been so much pressure on the publicist to make sure people see that thing, and I get that.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I'm like, yeah, I will be the most amenable trooper as we go to see this thing that we all know I'm never, ever going to write about to a point, right, and that's how I feel about the emails.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Of course you're going to have to send some emails because the client requires it, but it's just that sometimes it can be too much, and especially if it's never being peppered with emails that suggest that you know what I write about or how I write, or you've given some thought to how that story might be great for me. And the other thing I'll just say about the emails trust me emails I could for an hour we could talk. The thing I'll say about the emails is and I've had editor after editor repeat this is if you are sending out a pitch or an idea for a trip or what have you, and you are really blasting it to everyone, I almost have to not consider it just for that fact so if it's not addressed to me, if it's addressed to a group and I'm CC'd or whatever that might be, it becomes of less viability.
Heather Greenwood Davis:It becomes less viable for me because if my editor has also received that email and then I'm pitching it, they think I'm lazy, right, like I've seen this, or it feels tired before it's actually tired because they're like oh no, I've seen this now 60 times from all the writers I work with. That means somebody out there is doing it. I'm going to stay, you know, six feet away. So I think you really have to be super strategic when it comes to that, believe it or not. That was a short answer.
Angela Tuell:No, that was great, and we need to think about that every day as publicists. For sure I don't. This is not a fun topic, but I do need to go back to where we mentioned, you know, the Canadian American outlets, since you are Canadian. I must ask if the current political climate in the US is affecting your work or relationships.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Absolutely it is, and I have no problem answering that question because I wish it weren't so. I wish it wasn't the case that it was, but it's impacting on a number of levels. There is no Canadian outlet I work for Television. We didn't even mention radio. I do radio print online. There's no outlet at this time in Canada that I work for that is open to stories about US travel destinations.
Angela Tuell:Wow, that's incredible.
Heather Greenwood Davis:I mean I part. Yes, there has been sort of this rise of a patriotic, you know, stand together type mentality among some. But I think also there is a real fear about crossing the border and whether it's safe anymore. A major impact on consumers and readers and the push to not have that sort of you know filling up the pages of newspapers and magazines or television shows is coming from the consumer. I don't think this is just an editorial decision. I think there's real pushback when something shows up that is an American destination and that's what they're reacting to. So for Canadian outlets, it's definitely been a problem.
Heather Greenwood Davis:For me who writes for American outlets as well, my ability to come across to trade shows like IPW or IMM or luxury conferences or whatever that may be happening this year, becomes impeded because I'm a feel unsafe. You know I'm not as secure in crossing the border as I did, so it also means I can't write about those things because I'm not experiencing them. For the publications that can take them. Now listen, there are tons of American travel writers who can do that job, so it's not like I'm. I'm saying you know those places will be missing, but personally, yeah, it's really sad to me that I've had to rule out a whole section of work because of I. I simply don't feel safe enough to cross the border.
Angela Tuell:Oh, my goodness, I really don't know what to say. I wish I did, but I'm sorry.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, I just hope that we can get back, you know, sooner than later, to a space where we were. I hope we can recapture it and I hope it's not too damaged by the time you know it's available to us again. I still love all my American friends. You know I get that a lot and like I want to make it clear, if I haven't, that I personal personal belief systems and what have you. But I've yet to hear anyone say, like you know, I'm anti American, as in the people. So people should feel completely welcome and safe crossing the border, coming here, you know, and should feel secure. That you know. Nobody is that I, you know I can't speak for everyone, but I think I think most people are. What we're talking about is is a system of government.
Angela Tuell:Right and knowing that it was, it's half the people that agree with it and half that don't right Right Right. Or maybe not the exact split, but yeah.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah.
Angela Tuell:So asking something a little fun before we go, I'd love to know something about you that might surprise us or that many people don't know.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Yeah, I don't know if it'll surprise people who've seen me hiding behind a potted plant, but I am an introvert.
Angela Tuell:Okay. No, you don't sound like one.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Oh yeah, it's funny, I'm an introvert. I also am like I'm not a phone person. I am most comfortable behind you know my words behind my keyboard, but I do. I love speaking to an audience, I give keynotes, I speak at conferences. I'm super comfortable in front of a camera camera but I am a person who definitely needs to recharge a social battery and yeah.
Angela Tuell:So maybe that'll surprise people. I don't know it will. You had me fooled too. Watching a broadcast is fantastic, although you know, when I was a TV journalist I could do well. You said you could do keynote speakers, but I could do the camera great, but then if it was a large audience that was definitely harder for me. But the camera wouldn't bother at all.
Heather Greenwood Davis:So yeah, I get nervous always for those kinds of things TV or or live but somehow once it starts a minute and then it's fine.
Angela Tuell:It's a good thing. The nerves you know a little bit before it. So how can our listeners connect with you online?
Heather Greenwood Davis:I'm on Instagram far more than I should be and that's at by Heather GD B-Y. Heather GD. Email hgreenwooddavis at gmailcom. My site is heathergreenwooddaviscom.
Angela Tuell:Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time, Heather.
Heather Greenwood Davis:Thank you.
Angela Tuell:That's all for this episode of Media in Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think you can find more at communicationsredefinedcom slash podcast. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.